Chokma/ Aloha Kākou, The UCLA American Indian Studies Center is a community of students, faculty, and stakeholders advocating for Indigenous and American Indian people throughout the U.S. and beyond. We acknowledge that the proposed construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna Kea on the Island of Hawai’i violates what is considered the piko, … Read more
The AISC is seeking to get in touch with past recipients of the Yellow Thunder Scholarship, which has offered support to students for decades. If you received a scholarship through this fund, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us at aisc@ucla.edu.
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center Gov. Gavin Newsom formally apologized to California Native Americans through an executive order Tuesday for the state’s “dark history” of violence against indigenous people. “It’s called a genocide,” Newsom said at a ceremony announcing the state’s apology. “No other way to describe it… I’m … Read more
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center The Tongva artist Mercedes Dorame is a 2003 UCLA graduate who earned a BA in American Literature and Culture and went on to receive an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She calls on her Tongva ancestry to engage the problematics of visibility … Read more
Stella E. Nair, Associate Professor at the UCLA Department of Art History, gave an interview with Peru’s largest newspaper, El Comercio, on Chinchero. The interview was conducted in Spanish. Stella E. Nair sobre Chinchero: “Nadie construiría un aeropuerto frente al Palacio de Versalles” La especialista en arquitectura prehispánica alerta sobre este atentado al paisaje y … Read more
By Shelby Dunagan Posted: May 20, 2019 12:04 am The UCLA Institute of American Cultures and its four ethnic studies research centers celebrated their 50th anniversary and talked at a panel about what they have accomplished since their creation in the field of ethnic studies. The directors of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center, UCLA … Read more
INDIGENOUS CHILDREN ARE DYING AT THE U.S./MEXICO BORDER Washington, D.C. May 16, 2019 Today, the International Mayan League denounces the latest victim of death and murder at the U.S/Mexico border, a 2½ year-old toddler, a boy from Chiquimula, Guatemala. This tragic loss comes on the heels of the death of 16-year-old Juan de Leon Gutierrez … Read more
By Alexsandra Coltun Schneider May 14, 2019 More than 1.5 billion acres of land have been taken from Native Americans, according to a study by Slate Magazine. Amid the virtual normalization of this process, the idea of returning land to indigenous individuals shouldn’t be left off the table, said author and educator Dina Gilio-Whitaker. UCLA’s … Read more
By Thomas Curwen May 9, 2019 From the top of Signal Hill, Los Angeles disappears in the haze. Gauzy light smudges details, so that only the mountains, the sea and the land in between remain. No freeways; no homes, high-rises or palms. Off the coast lies the broad silhouette of Catalina. To the west rises … Read more
By Sean Greene and Thomas Curwen May 9, 2019 From the mountains to the sea Long before the development of Los Angeles, with its freeways and suburbs, Southern California was known for its grasslands, estuaries and oak-covered foothills. Tovaangar The original people of Los Angeles, the Tongva, defined their world as Tovaangar. It extended from Palos … Read more